AS RECENT EVENTS in Australia and overseas attest, violent extremist acts persist as a chosen tool for radical groups to terrorise populations and recruit more adherents. This is despite a wide array of prevention, containment and rehabilitation strategies in place around the world. Brian Adams of Griffith University Centre for Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue writes about the toolbox of interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

In celebration of Cultural Diversity Week 2015, the City of Darebin will host an Intefaith Breakfast. The topic of the event will be “Freedom of speech, responsibilities and respect – Where are the lines drawn?” The guest speaker will be Tanja Kovac, a prominent lawyer involved in the MV Tampa case.

The Centre for Interfaith & Cultural Dialogue in collaboration with the Australian Earth Laws Alliance will
be hosting a one day workshop, which features presentations about ecocentrism and ecospirituality from Earth Jurispurdence perspectives, in addition to perspectives from many faith traditions. This event also features open space and small group discussions.

The co-convenors of the Parliamentary Friends of Multiculturalism, the Member for Calwell Maria Vamvakinou and the Member for McMillan Russell Broadbent commemorated the United Nations Interfaith Harmony Week with an interfaith dialogue in partnership with the Canberra Interfaith forum and Religions for Peace Australia in Parliament House Canberra, on Wednesday, 11 February 2015.

In celebration of World Interfaith Harmony Week, Monash University Chaplaincy and Religions for Peace Victoria Branch hosted a public event at Monash University on Thursday, 12 February 2015. Guest Speaker Associate Professor Nasir Butrous gave an address on Ethnicity, Religions and Harmony: Exploring Christian Muslim Relations in Iraq Today.

International speaker Judith Dupre will visit Melbourne for a series of events in March. Among these lectures is one that may be of interest to those involved in Interfaith dialogue - “Perceptions of Mary in Christianity, Judaism and Islam”.

The Multifaith Association of South Australia announce that there will be a special viewing of the Mush and Me play on Sunday March 8th 2015 at 2.30pm at the Holden Street Theatres (34 Holden Street Hindmarsh). Mush and Me is an interfaith relationships play, winner of the Holden Street Theatres 2014 Award, and will debut at the Adelaide Fringe from February 10th till March 15th.

Every year the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia (Vic) runs a Model Passover/Pesach Seder for women of different faiths. Explanations are given about the traditions and customs of this eight-day festival which commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. This year, the event will occur on Sunday 22 March 2015 in Caulfield.

The Hon. Justice Peter McClellan AM, Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, launched the Long-term Outcome of Forgotten Australians Study (LOFA) research project at the University of New South Wales